Currency Russia

Soviet Foreign Trade Bank Closes: Foreign firms and joint ventures in Moscow were left without cash this week as a key branch of the former Soviet foreign trade bank closed. The Vneshekonombank branch in Moscow's International Trade Center did not reopen after the two-day break for the Russian Christmas, which ended Wednesday. The move means that Moscow branches of many firms were unable to withdraw foreign currency.

Soviet Foreign Trade Bank Closes: Foreign firms and joint ventures in Moscow were left without cash this week as a key branch of the former Soviet foreign trade bank closed. The Vneshekonombank branch in Moscow's International Trade Center did not reopen after the two-day break for the Russian Christmas, which ended Wednesday. The move means that Moscow branches of many firms were unable to withdraw foreign currency.

Recent Russian Cabinet changes by President Boris N. Yeltsin: * March 23, 1998: Yeltsin abruptly fires Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, who had served more than five years. The president says he wants to speed reforms and names 35-year-old Sergei V. Kiriyenko the new premier. Kiriyenko brings a group of young economic reformers into his government. * Aug.

The United States has agreed to buy tons of weapons-grade uranium from Russia's nuclear arsenal to keep the material from falling into the hands of unfriendly countries or terrorists, the White House announced Monday. The agreement, the first of its kind, is also aimed at pumping additional hard currency into Russia's deteriorating economy and helping the Moscow government pay for safety improvements on nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union, a White House statement said.

Russia is bracing for another currency panic. This time, it's not the ruble that's in trouble but the $100 bill. In a bid to thwart wily high-tech counterfeiters, the U.S. Treasury Department plans to unveil a new $100 bill with a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin, a watermark and other features that are difficult to duplicate. But the news that America plans to tamper with the greenback, an object of almost sacred devotion in Russia, has triggered near-hysteria here.

As if they had plunged into a medieval ritual hailing a new monarch even while mourning the old king, the republics of the disintegrating Soviet Union are shouting, "The union is dead! Long live the commonwealth!" It is a puzzling process, for everything and nothing seems to be changing. Some of the republics, such as Ukraine, that struggled so hard to break with the Soviet Union and establish their independence are now eager to join its successor.

January 9, 1994 | A. Craig Copetas, A. Craig Copetas, winner of the 1990 Olive Branch Award for his work as Moscow correspondent for Regardie's Magazine, is the author of "Bear Hunting With the Politburo" and a former visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute of Advanced Soviet Study at Columbia University

I am perhaps not alone in thinking a Cold War needs to be declared on books filled with motivational anecdotes that offer American and Russian leaders inspiration. Once an author gets anywhere near to mentioning streamlined nuclear deterrent strategies, or divulging on the dust cover that my $23 will buy a read which "grew out of a confidential study developed for a select group of international companies by a leading international consulting firm," it's time to sound a Red Alert.

Remember the prosperous Russia of yeoman property holders that President Boris N. Yeltsin evoked last week? Well, there are still plenty of bugs in the system, his lieutenants admitted Monday. Thirty-two of Russia's regions, at last word, hadn't even created the government committees that are supposed to preside over the massive selloff of state-owned factories and assets, the man in charge reported.

May 8, 1995 | DAVID GOMPERT, David Gompert is a vice president at RAND and former senior director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Security Council in the Bush Administration. and

Russia's plan to sell nuclear technology to Iran looms as the make-or-break issue at this week's summit between President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. If Clinton's fabled power of persuasion fails to stop the sale, vital American interests could suffer. Yeltsin should make a choice: the Iranian contract or a cooperative relationship with the United States. Iran has emerged as the main threat to the security of the Middle East and access to Persian Gulf oil.